Twenty-seven men are in custody and being held in the Tift County Jail, and more warrants are pending in what is one the largest drug sweeps in the county’s history. Tift County Sheriff Gary Vowell said the investigation, which included undercover agents, began in September.

The first of 62 individual warrants for manufacture, sale and possession of MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana were issued in the early morning hours Wednesday. Seventy-five agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Tift County Sheriff’s Office, the Tifton Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol served the warrants. More are pending.

“Not everybody who has been charged is being held in our custody,” said TCSO Public Information Officer David Haire. “Some were already in jail on other charges.”

Some of those arrested were taken to other facilities. One of the arrests was for a juvenile.

Haire said mid-afternoon Thursday that deputies, officers and agents have been working around the clock.

“They are suiting up to go out again as we speak,” Haire said.

Ricardo Ray Brown, 34, Clint Circle, Lot #6, and Reginald Eugene Ford, 32, 1116 Fletcher Road, were booked into the Tift County Jail on Tuesday. Those booked into the jail on Wednesday as part of the operation include:

—Claude Burroughs, 44, 1509 Pickard Ave., sale of cocaine;

—Sarrian Emmanuel Cook, 18, 309 S. Jefferson Ave., Sylvester, sale of marijuana;

—Wendell Lamar Edwards, 32, 117 Alder St., sale of cocaine;

—Reginald Eugene Ford, 32, 1116 Fletcher Road, possession of MDMA and trafficking in cocaine over 400 grams;

—Howard Anthony Gammage, 24, 3103 4th Ave., two counts of sale of cocaine;

—Bobby Lee Garmon, 39, 3106 4th Ave., sale of cocaine;

—Jermaine Gray, 29, 3101 Hill Ave., eight counts of sale of crack cocaine;

—John Bernard Green, 45, 3123 6th Ave., sale of cocaine;

—Stacy Howell Greene, 42, 117 Alder St., possession of crack cocaine;

—Willie A. Henry, 55, 1010 Doc Melton Sr. Drive, sale of cocaine;

—Demetrius Carmanie Ivey, 19, 1308 S. Central Ave., sale of marijuana;

—David Anderson Jackson, 19, 828 Lower Ty Ty Road, Ty Ty, sale of cocaine;

—Darrin Demetrius Jones, 40, 3108 5th Ave., five counts of sale of cocaine;

—Derrick Dewayne Jordan, 27, 2728 S. Central Ave., sale of cocaine;

—Brenda Joyce Kimbrough, 52, 302 W. 19th St., sale of cocaine;

—Fredrick Lamont Mayo, 28, 311 Beech St., three counts of sale of crack cocaine;

—Kenya Denard Mitchell, 23, 2907 Carter St., sale of cocaine;

—George Wilson Nelson, 32, 2902 Hill Ave., possession of crack cocaine;

—Todaine Ozwaze Richardson, 26, 62 Pecan St., 10 counts of sale of cocaine and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime;

—Roy Lee Rogers, 32, 120 E. 13th St., Apt. 8, sale of crack cocaine;

—Anthony Tyrone Stephens, 34, 181 A S. Pickett St., Ty Ty, sale of cocaine;

—Bryan Lakeith Turner, 27, 2906 James Ave., two counts of sale of cocaine;

—Avoashon Devaise Washington, 21, 114 W. 9th St., sale of cocaine;

—Johnnie Lee Whitehead, 48, 407 Gilliard St., sale of cocaine;

—Xavier Wilbert Wilcox, 26, 608 E. 6th St., sale of cocaine; and

—one juvenile charged with sale of marijuana.



To contact city editor Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.